News from the senior management team no. 16/2013

Facts about the school psychologist programme

In an article in the Berlingske newspaper on 6 May, representatives of the Danish Union of Teachers (DLF) and Local Government Denmark (LGDK) suggest that Aarhus University is dragging its feet and refusing to set up a programme in school psychology.

This is not correct. Aarhus University has offered to set up a Master's degree programme in school psychology for LGDK which builds on a teacher education degree, and which will give the graduates the skills and competencies they need to handle tasks as part of the schools' pedagogical psychological consultancy. Aarhus University is still awaiting a response to this offer.

On the other hand, Aarhus University is unable to provide a study programme which, via a two-year graduate programme and an 18-month Master’s degree programme brings the qualified teachers up to an academic level which is necessary to be awarded an authorisation on the same terms as the Master's in Psychology graduates which the university educates over the course of a five-year specialist programme. Such a programme would not be of a sufficiently high academic standard.

No bill for AU after IT identity theft

Several media have carried a story about how an IT fraudster has duped a member of AU's academic staff into revealing their login and password via a so-called phishing email, and then used the information to spend DKK 100,000 on trips to South Africa with the travel agency CWT.

However, the university refused to pay the bills as the trips were not booked by a member of AU staff, and also because they were paid for using stolen credit card details.

Consequently, the case has not incurred any costs for Aarhus University or any of the university's employees, and is thus a dispute between CWT, the credit card companies and the cardholders. However, it is yet another reminder to everyone that credit card details should be handled with the greatest care.

QS World University Rankings by Subject published

QS has just published its subject rankings for 2013. Almost 3,000 universities were evaluated, with Aarhus University being ranked in the top 100 for nine out of the 24 subject areas in all.

The best position is within 'Communication and media studies', where Aarhus University is placed no. 37.

The QS rankings are based on academic reputation and employer reputation as well as bibliometric data where the reputation accounts for 50-90% of the score depending on the subject area. A large proportion of the figures on which this year's subject rankings are based were originally gathered for the 2012 edition of the overall university rankings list from QS.

The Senior Management Team publishes a newsletter every week. This newsletter includes a brief description of current activities and discussions. You can sign up for the Danish version of the newsletter at info.au.dk/medarbbreve, after which you will receive an e-mail whenever the newsletter is issued.